PSA warning about privacy

[binny]

For those of you who have me on FB you know this already for those who dont please learn from my mistake!

Cam (14) has an ad on craigslist, this guy emailed asking about it, Cam answered it from my account, then this guy emailed me back on my account and said "Hey, probably not the best idea to use your personal email to answer people on CL. Alot of info you can reveal about yourself!! I mostly harrass software pirates and such for fun"
then he attached my IP address, street address, phone number, picture of me, MAP to my house, and a picture of my house.

I was shaking for a long time. Fortunately I happen to live next to a State cop and have VERY alert neighbours. That makes me feel a little better. Please learn from my mistake though. I am not normally an alarmist but this has me really freaked out.
I have changed all of my privacy settings on everything. Please be careful with what information you put out there! I have been very lax about it in the past. Not any more.

 

[mpls_mm]

I have tracking software on my website that if you go to my webstore or website I can see your IP address and your location ( I can zoom thanks to Google maps), what OS you are running, your browser, what pages you look at, how long you look and the words you typed to get to me.I can see what you click on and what you add to your cart. I can track how often you visit and how much you spend. I can send you an instant message chat request geared to what you are looking at. My set up isn't even high tech and it is purely for informational purposes. I think most people don't know. If you are that worried, I would get an ip address based elsewhere. I never use my local phone company.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

The IP thing is not 100% reliable, btw, especially if your provider has seriously messed with the pooch on assigning addresses.

Seriously, I know some people with IP addresses that teh interwebs insists live in one town when their actual address and router is in a town 30 miles away. Similarly, I don't think there's one single IP address that points to the right physical address in my entire town. The IP addresses point to the right town all right, just the wrong addresses. . .I have no idea why, but I think it's danged funny, as my IP address maps to a millionaire's home.

 

[dumboiu]

Thanks for sharing the information........I can imagine how disconcerting that was!

 

[threeboysmom]

Yeah, that would REALLY freak me out! And I'm not an alarmist either...

I'm shocked. Someone actually was able to get a picture of you just from your email address???

 

[binny]

he went to the trouble of googling me and finding all of that info. It just wasnt that he had my IP address.

He found an obscure picture of me from a business site that I belonged to years ago, he also wrote what I did for a living and went to the trouble of finding out a LOT of information on me. He had the last 3 jobs that I have had, even the one that is years old.

I know there are tracking cookies and the like, I know that people can find me I have a business I expect that. I guess I just didnt expect some random stranger to go to all of that trouble to find SO many details about me. Its one of those things where you KNEW it could happen, you just didnt EXPECT it to happen. It was really disconcerting.

I just wanted to put it out there, use another email for stuff like that. I consider myself pretty web savvy, I had googled my name before I just didnt expect something like this to happen.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Oh wow, scary. Thanks for the heads up.